Western Suburbs Legal Service

Information for research and campaign volunteers

Research and campaigns are critical to the development of legal rights because often the law offers inadequate protection in the current form. At other times, there are no mechanisms available for indicating that people are being affected in one way or another by the legal system through laws, policy and practice.

The skills involved include:

• community education/training
• information production & dissemination
• community liaison
• campaigning
• research techniques.

The aim of training in this area will be to provide some of the necessary skills in undertaking various kinds of research and campaigns.

In order to undertake effective research/campaign work, it is necessary to have an understanding of/or be provided with training in the following issues:

• Types of campaigns
• Deciding on campaigns
• Setting aims and objectives
• Developing strategies
• Networking
• Media
• Campaign research
• Types of research
• Developing a research strategy
• Developing a research methodology
• Research funding
• Statistics
• Evaluation
• Research promotion